Review Revue: ‘The Other Woman,’ ‘Brick Mansions,’ ‘The Quiet Ones’

From left, Kate Upton, Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann in ‘The Other Woman’

20th Century Fox/Everett Collection

This week at the multiplex, we’ve got spurned ladies (“The Other Woman,” starring Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann), a ticking time-bomb (“Brick Mansions,” starring Paul Walker and David Belle), and a paranormal experiment (“The Quiet Ones,” starring Jared Harris and Sam Claflin). Find out what the critics have to say on Rotten Tomatoes.

“The Other Woman”

As the saying goes, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Unfortunately, critics say the problem with “The Other Woman” is it’s a bit too tepid, offering a few decent laughs but never quite nailing the female empowerment vibe it’s aiming for. Carly (Cameron Diaz) is reeling from the discovery that her boyfriend is married. She stews for a while, but upon meeting his wife (Leslie Mann) and his other girlfriend (Kate Upton), she realizes the three women have a lot in common, and collectively they decide to exact revenge. “The Other Woman” is currently at 29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer; check out some of the reviews here:

Rotten: “Rather than upgrading the much-maligned ‘chick flick’ genre with creativity and wit, the makers of ‘The Other Woman’ have simply repackaged it.” — Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

Rotten: “Mann and Diaz give it their all, and you can see how they might be a good comic team with better material.” — Sara Stewart, New York Post

Fresh: “Audiences looking for a nonstop laugh riot may be disappointed, but the big laughs are there, and they benefit from the movie’s underlying sincerity.” — Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

“Brick Mansions”

A remake of the gravity-defying, parkour-infused French import “District 13,” “Brick Mansions” promises balletic action and high-wire thrills. And critics say it does indeed feature a few strong set pieces, but they aren’t enough to compensate for an overabundance of plotting and an underabundance of character development. In a crime-ridden Detroit of the near future, an undercover cop (Paul Walker) must infiltrate a heavily fortified section of town in order to diffuse a bomb that’s fallen into the hands of a vicious crime lord (RZA). “Brick Mansions” is currently at 37 percent on the Tomatometer; here are some of the reviews:

Rotten: “Whenever it features feet flying through the air, ‘Brick Mansions’ is a pleasure. Asked to do anything else, it’s one stumble after another.” — Keith Phipps, The Dissolve

Rotten: “The action sequences of ‘Mansions’ are edited within an inch of their lives, adding more incoherence than thrills.” — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

Fresh: “A silly pile-up of exaggerated action clichés — and much of the time, it’s pretty fun.” — Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club

“The Quiet Ones”

Hammer Film Productions has long been a purveyor of a more elegant brand of horror film. Unfortunately, critics say “The Quiet Ones” is a little too classy for its own good; despite solid performances and a spooky sense of place, the film delivers occasional jolts but fails at sustaining tension. In a remote English estate, Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris) and a team of students are experimenting on a young woman who’s purported to be possessed by a supernatural being. Coupland believes she’s simply mentally ill, but his hypothesis is put to the test when he and his researchers are bedeviled by increasingly terrifying incidents. “The Quiet Ones” is currently at 40 percent on the Tomatometer; here’s a rundown of the reviews:

Rotten: “Many of the movie’s more nominally horrific elements are too familiar.” — Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Rotten: “As an exercise in retro pastiche, it impresses. But as a postmodern genre reinvention, it fails to deliver.” — Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter

Fresh: “Perhaps too low-key to really draw the hard-core horror crowd, ‘The Quiet Ones’ prefers a slow-burn sense of dread rather than hard-core blood-and-guts, and to a certain extent is all the better for it.” — Mark Adams, Screen International